ABSTRACT
What is capitalism as a mode of production? This is not an easy question, and for that reason is not in fact a widely discussed one. It seems to me that there are several elements that combine to constitute the ‘model’. Capitalism is the only mode of production in which the maximization of surplus creation is rewarded per se. In every historical system, there has been some production for use, and some production for exchange, but only in capitalism are all producers rewarded primarily in terms of the exchange value they produce and penalized to the extent they neglect it. The ‘rewards’ and ‘penalties’ are mediated through a structure called the ‘market’. It is a structure but not an institution. It is a structure molded by many institutions (political, economic, social, even cultural), and it is the principal arena of economic struggle.
